


Hung Out to Dry

by colls



Category: Andromeda
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-05
Updated: 2010-07-05
Packaged: 2017-10-10 09:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/98380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colls/pseuds/colls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harper's only been on board for a couple weeks, doesn't know what to call the Captain and isn't sure what's in store.  Written for Fest 07. Prompt: <i>Beka, Harper, 'either we hang together or we hang separately, set pre-series'</i> Beta'd by <a href="http://angelus2hot.livejournal.com/profile"><img/><b></b></a><b><a href="http://angelus2hot.livejournal.com">angelus2hot</a></b>, remaining mistakes are my own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hung Out to Dry

It had been two weeks since the captain's muscle-bound boyfriend, Bobby, had left. Good riddance. As far as Harper was concerned, that guy was a psycho control freak and nothing but trouble. Besides, Harper tended not to like bullies that came in Nietzschean-sized packages. Since he was born and raised on a Nietzschean slave world, it was hard to blame him.

Two weeks with the place to himself. Except for the redheaded captain, of course. He was still re-wiring and futzing around and generally getting acquainted with the lovely lady, happy as a kid with a new nano-welder. Which, coincidentally, he had found when he went rummaging around in one of the equipment lockers along with a nifty tool belt. It was better than Christmas around here! Oh, and by lady, he meant the _Eureka Maru_. He wasn't sure what to call the captain yet, but something told him 'lady' wasn't going to fly.

Sure, the captain came behind him and inspected everything he did, but he didn't mind. Harper liked to show off his skills; and when it came to electronics and mechanical things, he had some pretty mean skills. He'd been fixing pretty routine stuff, things she'd asked for, now he wanted to surprise her. Her. The 'not-a-lady'. Captain. Babe. Sweetcheeks. Venus-the-Valentine... She didn't seem appreciative that he was searching for just the right term. He shrugged and grinned to himself, no nickname could ever fit as nicely as that little tank top number she wore the other day.

Harper crawled underneath the catwalk in the engineering compartment, searching for a break in the port side sensor control relay. He noticed that Captain Sweetcheeks relied heavily on the four other sensors and weaved the _Eureka Maru_ back and forth to get a clear picture, overcompensating for the bad port side sensors. He would claim his motivation was purely altruistic or for the pure joy of knowing he could do it. Maybe he'd admit that he also wanted to prove his worth. Mostly, it was because all the weaving about made him want to hurl his lunch.

The captain's voice startled him as it boomed from overhead, "Harper, we're in the Hyrdralia system. ETA to Vraxel Drift is 45 minutes."

Harper cursed as his head hit the panel above him. "Yeah, okay. You don't have to yell!"

She either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him. Harper was going to have to check the internal communication systems next. It was either too loud or didn't work at all, there wasn't a lot of in between. He began to extract himself from under the deck when out of the corner of his eye, he saw what he'd been looking for. He grinned and grabbed his nano-welder, "There you are, you little bugger."

Thirty minutes later, Harper strolled into the cockpit whistling a nonsensical tune and headed towards a console behind the helm. "Hey there, Red. Red hot. Redilicious...."

"Harper! Cut it out. Is plain old 'Beka' too much for your poor brain to handle? If you don't stop, I'll call you Sebastian."

"Seamus."

"Seamus."

"No, call me Harper. But the name's Seamus, not Sebastian."

"Whatever."

Harper cleared his throat. "Um... ok. Hey, Ms. Captainy Person, check out your port side sensors."

"I don't have port side sensors."

"Well," he tapped the screen, "you do now!"

The captain turned towards a display mounted to the right of the helm and called up a schematic. Scrolling through a few displays, she slowly began to smile. "Well, I'll be damned. I tried half a dozen times to fix that thing."

She leaned back and turned to smile at him. "Nice work, Harper." She turned back towards the viewport. "Now hold on and prepare to dock."

 

**************

Harper stood off to the side near the airlock while the captain talked with some sort of alien he'd never seen before.

"No, my name is Valentine. V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E." The alien said something that Harper couldn't hear, but from the rigid line of her back he could tell the captain was reaching the end of her patience.

"Oh for cryin' out loud! At least speak common if you're going to price gouge me on the docking fees!!" She dug into a pocket of her impossibly tight leather pants to give the alien something. Harper couldn't tell what it was because he was suddenly distracted by the sight of her impossibly tight leather pants. Why hadn't he noticed how intriguing the curve of her butt was before? And in leather, no less.

"Harper, stop staring at my ass, close your mouth and let's go. I haven't got all day."

They wandered through a maze of corridors into a market place and past stalls that held all sorts of enticements. Harper gawked a lot, but managed to keep up. He peppered her with questions the entire way. Surprisingly enough, she answered most of them.

 

Finally, she stopped at a stall where a man with green skin and furry hands was selling religious trinkets. She gave Harper a 'be-quiet-let-me-do-the-talking' look. Or, at least, that's what he thought it meant. I could be the 'did-you-shower-today' look, he still got those two mixed up. Speaking to the green guy she said, "I'm looking for Michaels."

Harper nonchalantly lifted his arm, pretending to scratch his ear, and sniffed. He decided she had given him the 'be-quiet' look, although the 'shower' look would be brewing soon. People in space seemed to shower a lot.

"We are all searching for something, my child," the alien replied.

"Knock it off, I'm not in the mood and I don't have the time." She pointed at up to the right corner of his stall, "I know he's watching, tell him he's got company."

Harper craned his neck in the direction she had pointed and sure enough, there was a miniature camera tucked away up there, barely noticeable.

The green skinned man shrugged and moved over to talk with another customer. Harper stood there with his hands in his pockets. He wasn't sure what was going to happen next but decided, for once, to really try and keep his mouth shut. A door behind the stall opened and three very large men walked out. One of them was a Nietzschean and Harper figured that certainly couldn't be a good sign. He practically bit his tongue.

The Nietzschean smiled, "Captain Valentine. How nice of you to drop by. Mr. Michaels is quite anxious to speak with you."

"Yeah, I bet."

"And I see you've brought a pet."

Harper couldn't stay silent anymore. The past five minutes had killed him. "Pet? Har-har, very funny. I bet your...."

"Mr. Harper is a member of my crew," her voice was sharp, her quick glare at Harper even sharper. "We're here to discuss business with Michaels." Her interruption cut off Harper's plans to go off on a wonderful diatribe about the night he spent with the uber's mother. Harper knew it was probably a wise decision, but he'd been practicing it for a while now and was looking forward to using it.

The Nietzschean didn't seem to notice that he had narrowly avoided a severe tongue lashing by one Seamus Zelazny Harper. "Business? I hope that includes the small matter of paying him what you owe."

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

"You can give me the funds and I will be sure to have them delivered to Mr. Michaels. Along with your heartfelt apology for being late with your payment."

She smiled, "It's not going to work that way. I need to speak with Michaels."

"He's not available. You'll speak with me." His tone was becoming steely and his expression was hardening.

"The _Maru_ is docked on pier 7. Tell him to contact me when he has the time." She turned to leave.

"I'm afraid it's not going to work that way, Ms. Valentine."

Before Harper knew what happened, someone grabbed his arm, spun him around and he felt a sharp pain as a fist connected with the side of his face. Then everything went black.

 

**************

Harper heard muffled voices. He tried to open his eyes but that only caused a sharp pain to radiate through his skull. He quickly closed his eyes again and concentrated on taking deep breaths. He focused on trying to hear the voices and make out what they were saying. He recognized the captain, her voice was like her hair - all fiery and feisty. Also kind of warm, safe. Like fires in the tunnels at home in wintertime. Not dangerous if they didn't get out of control. Her voice sounded very controlled now, and dangerous. The contradiction confused him until he reminded himself he was thinking in metaphors and that he must've hit his head harder than he thought. Finally the voices were coming into focus.

"Look, I've just had a bad run. I had to fire my crewman on the last job, he thought he could swindle me. He didn't get away with it, but it set me back. But I've got a good mechanic now, and he's got the _Maru_ in top shape. I can make that run to Tradius a lot faster than the space junk you've got running it now."

A man's voice Harper didn't recognize responded, "Why should I hire you to do anything considering the amount you owe me? I should simply take your ship and be done with it."

"Because I don't owe you quite that much. Besides, if you take my ship, my only remaining mission in life will be to see you dead."

The mystery man laughed. "Oh, that's rich Valentine. You're a lot like your father. I like that about you. That and I have a special affinity for redheads. I always said that redheads are full of piss and vinegar. Fun to tame."

Harper had known some redheads back on Earth. He couldn't say the guy was wrong, but hearing it in these conditions made him uncomfortable.

"Do you have a point, Michaels?"

"Tell you what, I'll take that slave off your hands and consider your payments up to date. Of course, you'll still owe me the remaining principle. But it'll be enough to give you another 90 days to come up with the payment."

"He's not a slave, he's a member of my crew."

"You told me yourself that you picked him up on Earth. Earth?!!?" The man laughed even louder than he had before, making Harper's head hurt. "Of course he's a slave, they all are there. And not trained slaves, either, or even well fed. He's really not even worth the back interest you owe, but I'm willing to consider it because of my admiration for your father."

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear." Harper was relieved to hear the fire back in her voice. "He's my crew."

"Captain Valentine. Your biggest debt to me is back interest. You give me that slave, I wipe that slate clean. If you've really repaired that hunk of space junk like you say you have, you can earn enough to pay the balance in less time than I've given you. Then you're off the hook. Completely debt free."

"He's my crew."

"Your crew or your ship, Valentine. What's it going to be?"

The silence stretched uncomfortably. Harper wasn't sure whether to attempt opening his eyes again to see what was going on or not. His first job in space and he was going to get sold out to a slaver. Great. He slowly lifted one eyelid and grimaced and let out a low moan.

"Harper? Are you ok" The loud tone of her voice reverberated and bounced around his skull like a bullet ricocheting in a steel drum. He answered the only way he could, he groaned and lifted a hand to his head in a futile attempt to stop the pounding.

"Did your thugs have to hit him quite so hard?"

"Everyone knows you like your men tough. They weren't taking any chances."

"Really? That is truly the lamest excuse I've ever heard. Did they look at him before they planted a fist in his face? At least give him something for the pain until the swelling goes down."

Harper wanted to protest as he felt someone lean over and press a hypospray to the side of his neck, but he didn't find his voice before the blackness descended again.

**************

Harper woke up in what was becoming a familiar bunk. He opened his eyes, feeling only mild discomfort. Carefully sitting up, he took a look around the crew quarters of the _Eureka Maru_. Gingerly, he stood and touched his head. He decided he felt sort of okay, so he put his shoes on and went to find out what was going on.

Wandering into the galley, he saw a tall brunette leaned over the counter, her back turned towards him. The woman shook her head and suddenly her hair wasn't brown anymore but bright green.

"What the...."

The woman turned and he realized it was the captain. "Harper. You're awake."

Way to state the obvious, Red... er... "What's up with the hair?"

She grinned, "Maybe I'm tired of you trying to call me ridiculous nicknames."

Harper's face remained neutral. "No. Seriously. What's up with the hair?"

"Nano-bots," she turned her attention back to the mirror she had been staring at before he walked in. Shaking her head again, her hair turned to an ash blonde color that was a few shades darker than his own. "I'm done being a redhead. Bobby liked me as a redhead, I'm sick of it."

Harper suspected that combining that thought with idea that someone thinking it fun to try and 'tame' redheads meant that she'd never be a redhead again. He leaned on the counter opposite her and stared, considering her new appearance. "If you're going to go blonde, you should do it right. Go lighter."

Beka shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. "Like this?"

"Hubba hubba. Blonde Babe Bombshell. Blondeilicious. Blondetastic. Blondie-babe-a-rama..."

"Stop it. I can hurt you." Her tone was harsh, but a pretend harsh. Harper could sense the teasing in her.

"Speaking of hurting, what happened?"

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that I should probably be the property of someone named Michaels right about now."

She pointed a finger at him. "You're no one's property."

"Thankfully. But what happened?"

She shrugged. "I made a deal."

Harper sensed it wasn't a deal that was very beneficial to one Captain Beka Valentine. "Why?"

She took a deep breath, "As much as I like to say I don't need anybody, the truth is that this ship doesn't just run with one person. And the kind of jobs I'm likely to get don't lend themselves to interactions with a lot of warm and fuzzy people, so going in alone isn't the smartest thing to do."

Harper just stared at her.

"Basically, I could use your help. I try running this ship without crew and I might as well hang myself and get it over with. Besides, it's not like you've got a line of job offers to consider, mister."

"So, did they at least give us a job?"

"No. And they revoked my license. I can't take any legitimate jobs in this sector either."

"So they basically hung us out to dry."

"Yup. That about sums it up."

That was twice now in as many weeks that this captain had taken up for him, offering him a job and the protection of crew. The first time was when Bobby had tried to kill him. She'd gotten rid of him real fast, and it had cost her.

She was right about this lady, the _Maru_, needing at least two people. While he could probably keep her running by himself, what did he know about getting jobs out here. Hell, he didn't even know where 'out here' was without looking at a navigational chart. Independence was all good and well, but sometimes you just needed to be part of a team because it just didn't make sense to do it by yourself. Being hung out to dry with Captain Valentine didn't seem like that raw of a deal, even if she was buried under a mountain of debt.

Harper smiled. "Well, at least the engine sounds better since the intake valves got cleaned out last week. And the port sensor relay is working. I should take a look at the internal communication systems though, it seems a bit off in the engine room."

"First I want you to tune up the AG fields again and check the anti-matter tanks. I can't afford to replace either of them any time soon so I need them routinely maintained. After you've gotten something to eat, of course. I need my chief grease monkey routinely maintained as well."

Harper's stomach growled in agreement and he smiled. She still had a fiery and feisty voice, even as a blonde. "Whatever you say. You're the boss, Boss."

"And take a shower, would you?" she called back to him as she walked away.

"What? I'm supposed to do that every day?" Harper called out to her retreating form.

 

****end****


End file.
